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A jam submission

Flower InstabilityView game page

A Celeste-like pixel art precision platformer with a little twist
Submitted by Papus Games, ognomo, IMixDev — 10 seconds before the deadline
Rated by 17 people so far
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Flower Instability's itch.io page

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How does your game fit the theme?
A rain cloud follows the player, if you stand under it for too long a storm will start!

Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
Yes, we did everything from scratch.

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Comments

Submitted(+2)

Really fun and challenging! The platforming mechanics are solid, though the difficulty ramps up quickly. The visuals and sound design are top-notch, making it an engaging experience. Some tweaks on wall-jumping could improve the flow. Great job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! About walljump, did you play Windows build or Web build? In the web build there are a bit more problems with it then in the Windows build.

Developer

Thanks you very much!

Submitted(+2)

I enjoyed this. But it gets difficult a little too fast.

Developer

Thank you!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

I love the theme, art, music and the platforming overall feels quite good. The main issue I had was with the wall jumps, the just felt slightly off. Not sure if it was the delay on them or the responsiveness but I got frustrated really quickly as it felt quite unfair. I have quite a background in platformers and actually think the game overall works really well apart from that one point. The difficulty might ramp up for slightly less skilled players but apart from those two points this was one of the better entries I've played (and I'm 130+ in lol).

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! I think controls are much more responsive in the desktop version then WebGL, maybe there is some problem with them in the WebGL build. I would really appreciate if you play the desktop version (if you played the web build before), and send me a bit of a feedback (if you have time of course), about what feels better to control, maybe there's just a problem with them in general. About the levels, yeah, there were only two days to design them, so there might be some problems with balance. Again, thanks so much for playing!

Submitted(+2)

Just replayed with the windows build and some of the issues were gone! Thank you for giving me the pointer to that, I upped my rating even though it was already quite high haha! I still had SOME frustration with the wall slide/jump as it didn't feel fully consistent so that might need a look but for the rest near perfect!

Developer(+2)

Thank you for trying this! I'll need to put an extra warning on the game page, about recommending to play the Windows build instead. WebGL limitations are especially crucial for rhythm games, or precision platformers like this. Yeah, wall jump needs some adjusting, because I want it to feel natural, and "easy to learn, hard to master" type of thing. 

Submitted(+1)

I thought the game got difficult way too fast. I would've liked if the orbs got an introduction before using them in a super hard level. Couldn't get past the second screen unfortunately but it looks like a cute game :)

Developer(+1)

Thank you! Oh, that’s a shame, we’ve wanted to make an easier level for them, and even a bit of tutorial on how to use them, but we didn’t have time. We’ll soon release a playthough video of a game, and I’ll send a link with it, so you can see what the main mechanic of the game is like (it’s just past the orb level), but that is if you want to see it. Thank you for playing!

Developer(+1)

https://youtu.be/9F9Z2r2KRM0 Here you are!

Submitted(+2)

This game is nice, just isn't for me, I'm not a very into precision platforms like this, but just the feeling of the game itself is astounishing!

Developer(+1)

Thank you!

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted(+2)

Great game! easy to understand, realy hard to master!

Developer

Thank you!

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

That was a very cool platformer oozing celeste influence. Very well done project that looks amazing and plays pretty well too. I sadly didn't see the end though as it got a bit brutal towards the end. I think my gripes come with the difficulty as well (although I hope my advice wont be taken from a place of just not being good enough). The hitbox for the flower is practically the entire flower, which although makes sense, makes the game also feel very punishing. I can brush up against a spike and instantly die. I think a little leniency is a must in these types of games to avoid feeling unfair. My second grip was that I couldn't for the life of me figure out how the wall jump actually worked. I could wall jump once per wall? But it had a cooldown so not really, and I could hold a wall even if I could jump off it leading to an untimely demise over and over. Seemed very finicky and I don't know why the amount of wall jumps was limited in the first place. These combined with the fact that I had to wait for the storm to recharge my anger in the middle of a hard platforming section without a way to pause (like a celeste wall climb) made the game feel very unfair. The levels we're very fun, but the storm mechanic felt like it destroyed the whole flow of quick snappy platforming. I did enjoy what I did play though and the art and movement felt crisp. Great job! (Sorry for the mostly negative review. I just see great potential in the project and wanted it to be a little more enjoyable)

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much for such a detailed review! In principle, I agree with everything you said, the mechanics of wall jumping may not be clear at first, but it can be understood. Yes, the game is not perfect, but I like it and I am very proud of this work, thanks for the review again!

Developer(+2)

Thank you for playing! About the hitbox of the flower, actually, the hitbox of the flower for the spikes is 1 pixel larger than the main CharacterBody2D hitbox, and I had to decrease spikes hitbox to compensate the difference between these hitboxes, so it’s hard to control how big the spikes should be, maybe that’s the problem, I’ll try to balance it more. Walljump works like this: You have only one jump on the same sided wall, but you can recover it by jumping to the opposite sided wall. Was inspired by GATOTAG from GMTK 2024 for this mechanic. I think it can create some interesting levels, and is more or less balanced solution for the jam game, I’ll see what fits  better. And why did you think that there was a cooldown for it? With the storm mechanic, well, I think it’s fun to combine fast paced gameplay with this kind of slow, strategic mechanic. I think it’s fun to kind of think beforehand how you should jump, to recover more anger (or stay calm in some cases). Overall, it’s my first platformer, and there were only two days left for designing levels, so level design can be a little clunky. Thank you so much for such a great review, I’ll try to take everything into account!

Submitted (1 edit) (+3)

I played gatogag to see what the inspiration for this system was and saw what you guys were talking about. I think the main difference between the wall jump in this and gatogag was that gatogags wouldn't allow you to slide on the wall you jumped from as well. This made sense as in addition to not being able to slide, there was a visual component of the character facing away from the wall no matter what and being unable to grab the wall. I think a visual component would help immensely. Also thought there was a cooldown cause I sometimes randomly got back the jump after staying on a wall too long. Might be misremembering though I wouldn't look too into it. For a first platformer I have to say this was great though! Got to ask though. Why did you make the hitbox of the flower so big? Or did you guys use the same one you used for your character body's collision. If that's the case, I advice making those two separate, as to allow more flexibility in your future testing (like reducing the hitbox if that was what you guys wished to do). The storm mechanic could definitely be cool. I think the concept is excellent. Personally though I think the implementation was more inconvenient than enjoyable. Don't let that discourage you guy's from running with it though. I think this game has great potential and I'm glad you guys (the devs) are so open to feedback.

Developer(+2)

There are actually 4 different hitboxes for the player (screen transition, the one in case you get stuck in the wall and character body 2d one), don’t actually know why I made spikes collider so big, need to decrease it in the next update. Yes, completely agree, visual cue would help a lot, I’ll make it too. About cooldown, it shouldn’t be that way, that’s weird, might be some sort of bug. I think better level design and higher anger timer would make storm more enjoyable. 

Submitted(+2)

Think I got all the cherries unless there are some hidden ones hope it showed how many I collected(also how many times I died trying to get it lol)

also man that eding is dark

Developer(+2)

Thanks for playing, and congrats on fully beating the game! There are 8 cherries in the game, and the only hidden ones are in the second, and third room of the game, but they are pretty obvious. Actually, you might be the first person to collect them all, congratulations! About the ending, yeah, it's pretty dark, and what makes it even darker, we have designed it, so the cherry on top appears only if you have collected all of them, otherwise there meant to be none, but we didn't have time to do this, so it's always with a cherry. Thanks again for playing!

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much! I didn’t expect anyone to collect them all, and I’m so glad someone did! Congratulations!

Submitted(+2)

the flower transitions are soooo charming and the style is cute!! I definitely see the Celeste vibes, and I would agree with the person below about the moveset and wall holding, since I would end up holding the move button slightlyyy too long which would influence my jump trajectory and throw me off. Overall polish and progression is great!!

Developer

Thank you for your feedback!

Developer(+1)

Thank you! Yeah, about the moveset, I'll try to fix it a bit in the next update.

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

Great game! Suuuper polished and a ton of content for a jam game. I'd love if you checked out my platformer (its a lot less polished lol)

Developer(+2)

Thanks for playing! Okay, I’ll check your game tomorrow.

Developer

Thank you! Well, I’ll try to play your game today!

Submitted(+2)

As someone who holds Celeste dear to me (got everything and even played a lot of mods) I can say this has a potential to grow to be one of the better "Celeste likes". I loved the art style and the music! The ending was... something... I liked it. But got to say for someone who has played Celeste so much it was still hard, but not because of the level design or mechanics, but because the moveset needs polish. Like holding on walls should not require moving towards the wall if you will have wall jumping (this was the hardest thing for me to "master") and having only one wall jump was kinda cruel, but I see why is that. But I am pretty sure it was bugging sometimes and I didn't even have one jump which made the previous problem even bigger. I didn't like most of the cherries for different reasons, mainly head bumping, wall jumping with (the problem I explained earlier), not seeing above the screen (only one, but still) and timing the clouds. The last one is overall complain for the clouds, they are a unique and amazing mechanic, but having the effect for so short made it a little annoying and to be fair this is not a big issue, but when it comes to the room you need to get the effect and keep it otherwise walls will crush you it felt frame perfect and I felt like fighting against all mechanics of the game instead of using them. But aside this level and the timer a little too short the clouds were by far the most enjoyable part of the gameplay! Overall great game, wold love to see it improved and expanded! Great job!

Developer (1 edit) (+2)

Thank you for such an informative review! Actually, at first stages of development, you didn’t need to move towards the wall to hang on it, but I changed it. I think it creates some other interesting mechanics, like spamming the button to reset velocity, and slow down your fall. I’ll see what feels better to control, when I make next update. About wall jump bugging, can you please send a video of you catching that bug, if you can? I haven’t encountered any problems with it during the testing, maybe it’s due to WebGL lags, or something like that? I’m really interested in polishing it the best I could. About head bumping, I haven’t experienced much problems with it, but I can see that it can be pretty annoying sometimes. Yeah, the “not seeing above the screen level” problem was due to a limited level screen size, and after testing it, I’ve decided to leave it like that, make it a bit more challenging. About the clouds, my pixel artist told me to make anger timer longer, but I forgot about it a bit. True, the wall crushing level might be hard at first, but after testing it for 100th time, you nail that pixel perfect jump every time, and that was my problem. I should’ve made it a bit easier. Thanks again for such a thorough review! Really appreciate such informative feedbacks like this.

Submitted(+1)

I will try to remember to make a video later, but I am not sure how to show the problem, it just feels like sometimes I am not able to jump from a wall when I presumably should.

Developer(+1)

Hm, maybe walljump coyote time is a bit too low (just in case, the thing that lets you jump after you leave the wall for a little time)

Submitted(+1)

thx for adding explanation for coyote jump (not that I need it) ;)

Developer

Thank you very much! I think I have nothing more to add 😊

Submitted(+2)

I join the comments, the game is very difficult, especially for someone who rarely plays platformers (that's me):

However, the visuals and game mechanics, the platforming itself are executed at a high level, very good work! It even reminded me of Celeste, which is an exemplary hard platformer (which I certainly did not complete)

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much! Yes, the Celeste has had a big impact on this game.

(Кого то ты мне напоминаешь)))

Submitted(+1)

Мы уже встречались на одном из джемов ранее: у вас был проект Angular Moment, а у нас MindTwist :)

Developer

Да, хех)

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing! Yes, I wanted to achieve Celeste’s type of platformer physics. Well, I’ve 100% Celeste, so our game feels easy for me, but it can be pretty difficult for someone who rarely plays platformers. The more you play, the better you get in it! Thank you so much for playing again!

Submitted(+2)

Super difficult but super rewarding. Love the flower transition when you reload the level. 

Developer

Thank you very much! Yes, the game can be difficult in some moments

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing! Yeah, game wouldn’t be that fun, if it was too easy)

Submitted(+3)

absolutely love the graphics and audio! the dynamic music switching to a minor key when Flowey is angry does so much work. great job!

Developer(+1)

Thank you very much!

Developer(+2)

Thank you for playing so much! Yeah, we wanted to achieve this kind of change of mood in everything, when Flowey is angry

Developer(+2)

Composer here, very glad you noticed key change haha! Thanks for playing ♥️

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

I was the composer for our game as well. I'm always on the lookout for great music, and even better, great music interactions. great work!

Developer(+2)

I'll be playing your game with close attention to the soundtrack then!

Submitted(+1)

haha, ours is much more simplistic than yours, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Submitted(+3)

Very hard, but also very fun! I found weird only being able to wall-jump 1 time in each wall, but maybe that's just custom. I loved the pixel art and sound - specially the death animation (that i saw a lot).

One minor thing that bugs me is the restart scene being playable while the animation plays out, so if i was holding right sometimes my character would just die before i even saw the level again.

Overall a great experience

Developer

Thank you very much! One jump on the wall, this was done to avoid that you could climb the wall with it.

Submitted(+2)

Got it! Most games do that by making the wall jump send you too far, so you can't reach the same wall at a higher height. Not that one way is right or wrong, it's just that by playing a lot of these games we ended up condioned to expect it lol
Again, great game!

Developer (1 edit) (+2)

Yeah, the wall jump mechanic works like this: You can jump only one time on the same directional wall, but when you switch wall, you recover your walljump. I wanted to make it like in Celeste, so it feels flexible, but not that overpowered. About the restart scene, yeah, it’s easy to fix this, but I guess we just missed that in the testing stage. Thank you so much for playing!